Review of The Monuments Men (2014) by John M — 10 Jun 2014

Good ideas with subpar execution. Based on true events, this is about a band of men in World War II, teaming up to prevent Hitler from destroying timeless pieces of art. This was originally going to be considered for award season, but it got pushed back to February, which did not bode well for the fate of the quality of this film, although I do award points for trying.

George Clooney has proved himself as being a quality director in the past, and getting together an all-star cast like this makes you wonder how this could go wrong. I get the feeling that this was a tricky screenplay to adapt, because there are so many pieces that need to fit together better than it ultimately does here.

.. but being that it is based on real events, it's not like you can make sweeping changes to the story to make it work better onscreen. Whenever you start to get into one plot thread, it cuts to a different one that you had weren't as engaged with.

Not to say that there's not scenes that work here on an individual basis. For example, all of the scenes between Bill Murray and Bob Balaban standout above all the rest. If you watch this, you will get something out of it, but the cohesion that could potentially make this a classic war movie is missing.